As we enter the heart of Carnival season, more law enforcement officials from other agencies will be joining New Orleans police along the city's parade routes.
"We've got 27 agencies joining us. Each day, it's around 175 to, when we get closer to Mardi Gras, it'll be 225 (or) 250, around that total out there," Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said during a media briefing on Wednesday.
According to Hutson, those officers are helping city police enforce ordinances banning tents, barbecue pits, and other items from the parade route.
"We've had no issue with the people we've talked to about removing the things that are required to be removed," Hutson said. "The city reached out to us and asked us, I think it's a couple of hours before a parade, to go out and start talking to people."
In addition to contributing deputies, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office is contributing its ooking bus to help the NOPD secure the route. That bus, officials say, is a proactive measure.
"It's not necessarily about an increases in arrests that we're expecting," Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office Colonel Silas Phipps said. "It's about allowing the officers that are working the ability to get back onto the street and back onto their beats in a timely fashion."
According to Phipps, the booking bus will also assist jailers and suspects who are taken to jail.
"By the time they get (to the Orleans Parish Jail), at least half of the booking process will have already been completed, so that will expedite their release as well, especially if they are only are charged with municipal charges," Phipps said.